21
S imone arrived at her grandparent’s estate in the Northern Heavens to find it covered in a layer of fresh snow. The estate’s previous owner, Miss Toi, had been a huge fan of European styling, so the three-storey house looked like a British country manor. The concrete walls had been painted to appear as brown brick, and there was a small front porch with leafless climbing roses twining over it. Christmas fairy lights hung from the snow-covered roof and were strung along the walls, and it looked like something from a Christmas card. One of the demon servants opened the door and she went into the double-storey entrance with its stairs up to the bedrooms.
The house was deserted and quiet, and her grandfather shouted, ‘In here, Simone,’ from the kitchen.
She went through the living room, past the absolutely massive, heavily decorated Christmas tree, standing with its lights on and a mountain of gifts under it. She wound around the comfortable living room furniture, past the rectangular Western-style, ten-seater dining table, and into the country kitchen with its timber cabinets and fake-brick internal walls. There was another smaller table here, in a bay window overlooking the snow-covered garden, and Pop was busy in the kitchen, wearing a black-and-white-striped apron. He looked about sixty, but he was nearly ninety years old now, his lifespan lengthened by living on the Celestial as a mortal. He was preparing everything the family would need for a make-your-own-pizza night, and the demon servants were helping him lay it out on the kitchen bench.
‘They all went tobogganing,’ he said as he tipped a packet of grated cheese into a bowl. ‘You can go and catch up, they left not long ago.’
‘You won’t come?’ she asked.
He shrugged. ‘I’m from Queensland, and I hate the cold. Your Nan is from Melbourne and was a ski bunny from way back.’ The expression on his kind, lined face softened. ‘She looked an absolute treat in those skiing outfits, and she still does.’ He put down the cheese bag and pointed at the back door. ‘Head out that way—I know you can sense them or something—and go have a slide with them. Matthew and Frankie have decided to call it “butt-sliding” and now the whole family calls it that.’
She went out the back door and shrugged her shoulders inside her jacket when she felt the briskness of the cold air over the snow. The path the rest of the family had taken was obvious as there was a worn trail through the half-metre-deep snow—so she followed it past the barn and foaling stables, and into the forest of young fir trees Emma’s parents had planted. The winter day was quickly fading, and a light appeared in front of her, high above and shadowed by the trees. After a couple of hundred metres, she heard Frankie’s and Matthew’s shrieks of joy, and emerged from the trees to find the family standing at the top of a gently sloping hill. A glowing ball of her father’s shen energy floated above them, lighting the hillside so that it was easier to see in the growing dusk.
Her father and Emma were there, holding plastic toboggans by the cords. Her little eight-year-old cousin, Matthew, and Frankie had just hit the bottom of the run. They jumped out of the sleds, grabbed the cords, and raced back up the hill. Emma’s mother was halfway up, wearing skis and a bright green skiing suit, Freddo towing her from a long belt around his neck.
Simone’s father and Emma turned and saw her, and both of them lit up with smiles that warmed her heart. Emma gestured to Xuan Wu, who held his toboggan cord out to Simone.
‘Race you to the bottom,’ Emma said.
‘Butt-sliding!’ Frankie yelled from the bottom of the hill.
*
‘S imone,’ Frankie whispered in her ear. He shoved her and spoke in a hushed shout. ‘Wake up!’
She nestled under her silk quilt and groaned. ‘I’m asleep. Go away.’
‘Presents, Simone! Let’s go and wake up Mum and John and Nana and open ...’ His voice was full of quiet joy. ‘I have a present for you!’ He shoved her again. ‘Come on, it’s morning and it’s Christmas !’
She raised her head, saw that it was 6:30 and groaned again.
‘Simone?’
‘I’m coming,’ she said, before clumsily pushing the covers off. ‘Ugh. I need something to drink. Morning breath. Just a sec.’ She pulled her fluffy bunny robe around her and went out to the bathroom. She stopped in the doorway. ‘Do you need to go?’
He looked proud. ‘I already went. By myself. And I didn’t make a mess.’ He shooed her away. ‘You go, I’ll wake up Mum!’
‘You do that,’ she said, and headed to the bathroom.
She sensed them in the living room when she re-emerged. She went down the stairs, still in her robe, and found them all sitting around the tree in various states of Christmas-morning scruffy. Frankie was in the process of giving Matthew a present, watching him excitedly as he opened it to discover a dinosaur discovery science kit. They studied it together and cooed.
Nan pushed a mug of tea into Simone’s hand. Simone thanked her, then sat on the couch and looked around at everyone. Emma and Xuan Wu, still in their pyjamas—Emma’s were old and purple and nearly rags—with fluffy robes over the top, and both of them with tangled hair. Nan and Pop in old-fashioned tartan robes and fluffy slippers. Matthew and Frankie, in little matching robes from a children’s cartoon, both trying to read the back of the dinosaur discovery box. Even Freddo was present, lying on the floor between the couch and the dining table with his feet curled up beneath him.
Xuan Wu gestured towards Emma, and she rose and picked up a box from under the tree, passing it to Simone. ‘Merry Christmas.’
Simone put her mug down and sat next to Freddo to open it, wondering what they would have given her that was double the size of a shoe box. She made a loud sound of appreciation when she saw that it was a high-end Japanese rice cooker with multiple functions for making congee as well as rice.
‘A kitchen appliance, Emma?’ Nan asked.
‘No daughter of mine is putting up with second-rate rice,’ Emma said.
‘That is the most Asian thing I’ve ever heard you say,’ Simone said.
‘Do you like it?’ Freddo asked.
‘Yes!’ Simone said. She’d already opened the box and was checking the functions in the user manual.
Emma picked up her mug and smiled behind it. ‘I bought it for your little apartment in Japan, before you had the freedom of the Celestial. And I think you’ll still be able to make good use of it.’
‘I will,’ Simone said, and placed it next to her. She turned to Nan. ‘It’s a fabulous gift, Nan, I wouldn’t have spent that much on a cooker myself.’
‘I know,’ Emma said.
‘If you say so,’ Nan said, unconvinced.
Emma gave Frankie his gift and he opened it, squealed and ran in circles, then stopped and jumped up and down. Matthew saw that it was a new Nintendo and joined Frankie’s excitement.
‘Careful, you’ll break it,’ Emma said.
Frankie placed the console carefully on the couch, then ran and tackled his mother. He kissed her on the cheek then pulled back to look into her eyes. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, then threw himself at her again and hugged her tight. She hugged him back, her own eyes closed and her expression fierce.
‘I have something for you as well, Frankie,’ Xuan Wu said, and reached under the tree to pass Frankie a poorly wrapped sword.
‘Don’t let the Murasame see it,’ Emma said with a smile.
‘Whoa,’ Frankie said, and unwrapped the gift. It was a wooden training sword, similar to the one that Simone had used when she was a child, and Frankie immediately held it out in front of himself in a perfect katana-wielding pose. ‘This is great!’
‘No waving it around in here, you’ll hit something!’ Nan said. ‘Wait till you get it home and start training with your father.’
‘Okay,’ Frankie said and gently laid the training sword on the floor.
‘I have a small gift for you, Simone,’ Xuan Wu said, and picked a gold box that looked like a shoe box from under the tree and passed it to her.
She studied the box. ‘You didn’t need to get me anything, Dad, Christmas is a Western thing.’
He gestured towards the box. ‘You may not even like it ... it has no real monetary value. So open it and see.’
‘No real monetary value?’ she asked and opened the box. It contained a dun-coloured scroll with a brown ribbon around it, and she eyed her father suspiciously. There was also a red envelope, similar to those used to hold Chinese greeting cards.
‘Read the scroll first,’ he said. ‘I promise it’s not from the Jade Emperor.’
‘Well, this is intriguing,’ Pop said.
Simone placed the box next to her and opened the scroll.
The Princess Simone of the House of the North is hereby granted leave to visit the main land mass of Australia, including Tasmania, for the rest of her life. She is no longer prohibited from laying foot on the soil of our sacred homeland.
Uluru, Mother of All the Rocks.
Simone jumped to her feet and squealed. ‘I can go to Australia!’ She looked up at her father, who was obviously delighted at her reaction. ‘How did you do this?’
‘Two and half years of diplomatic negotiation,’ Xuan Wu said. ‘She drives a hard bargain.’ He gestured towards her. ‘Check the card.’
She sat again and opened the envelope. It contained a standard red greeting card, but had an embossed gold map of Australia instead of the usual Chinese characters. She opened the card and read the message written in gold on the interior:
Your actions have been exemplary, and the demon threat grows. You are invited to visit me, in person, to discuss plans for the future safety of all the realms without that annoying busybody poking his goddamn nose in.
Uluru
She looked up at her father. ‘Smiley face and everything?’
‘They’re all spooked by the ... new demons,’ Emma said, glancing at Frankie.
‘I know exactly who she means by annoying busybody,’ Simone said, placing the card next to her.
‘You have no idea,’ Emma growled under her breath, and Xuan Wu choked with a short cough of laughter.
Simone went to the tree and pulled out her gifts for the family. She’d intended to give them on the Peak and was delighted to be doing it with them in the Heavens.
She raised the gift that she’d bought for Frankie and gave it to him. He went goggle-eyed at it, then reached down and passed a gift to her as well. They sat together and opened them, and Frankie crowed with delight at the Lego battery-operated mechanical car.
Simone smiled at her father. ‘You have to help him build it, Dad.’
‘I look forward to it.’
‘Open yours!’ Frankie said, jiggling on the couch.
Simone opened her gift from Frankie to discover a custom-printed desk calendar of photos of the Mountain, the Northern Heavens, and Nan and Pop’s estate.
‘He took and chose the photos himself,’ Emma said.
‘I wanted you to be able to look at these cool places, even though you couldn’t come,’ Frankie said. ‘And now you can!’
‘I know!’ Simone said and hugged him. ‘This is the best gift ever!’
‘The printing house asked if it was a movie set,’ Emma said. ‘And we’re thinking of doing a print run next year to give to the Mountain students.’
‘Great idea,’ Simone said, flipping through the photos, and smiling at the idea that she could visit these places again. She rose to check for the gifts that she’d bought for Emma and her father, but Emma stopped her.
Emma gestured toward Freddo. ‘Give him his present, he’s dying of curiosity.’
‘What is that thing with my name on it?’ Freddo asked. ‘It’s huge!’
‘Right,’ Simone said, and moved the coffee table back to clear some space in front of Freddo. ‘Let’s see if we can work this.’
She pulled the large, flat box from under the tree, shifted it upright, and opened it for Freddo. She pulled a computer monitor out of it and set it up in front of him.
‘Uh ...’ Freddo began, then stopped.
‘Yes, you can use a computer, just watch this,’ Simone said with satisfaction.
She reached into the bottom of the box, pulled out the headset, and studied him. ‘This had better fit you.’ She placed it over the top of his head, and a long stylus protruded past the end of his nose. She stepped back and studied it. ‘There. Good.’ She plugged the monitor in, and it booted up with a smartphone operating system.
‘This is a touchscreen, and your stylus works like a finger on the screen,’ Simone said. ‘It operates as one of the Dragon’s hyper-intelligent AI phones, and it will respond to voice commands as well.’ She glanced at Freddo, who was watching the screen boot up with his horse mouth open and his tongue hanging out. ‘You’ll have to train it to understand your voice commands, but once you have it, you have full use of just about all the internet, and we’ll be able to video chat any time.’
‘My friend at school has one of those,’ Matthew said. ‘She uses it in her wheelchair.’
‘Freddo’s in a wheelchair,’ Frankie crowed. ‘Freddo can’t walk!’
‘Freddo’s got no arms!’ Matthew said, waving his hands around.
‘Dis-a-bled,’ Frankie said in a sing-song voice.
‘Hey!’ Emma said, at the same time that Nan said, ‘You boys quit this!’ and both Xuan Wu and Pop said, ‘No!’
Freddo disappeared, leaving the headset behind to fall to the carpet.
‘Uh oh,’ Matthew said softly.
‘I ruined Christmas!’ Frankie shouted, leapt to his feet, charged out of the room and clumped up the stairs wailing loudly.
‘We’ll handle the boys. Go to Freddo,’ Emma said, rising to follow Frankie.
‘Come with me, young man, we are having a talk,’ Nan said sternly to Matthew.
‘I’m sorry!’ Matthew shouted and burst into tears. ‘We didn’t mean it!’
‘Go to Freddo,’ Pop said. ‘Bring him back, because I have a lovely warm pot of boiled barley for him, and he loves that.’
*
T he interior of the barn was warm and spacious, and smelled of the fragrant bales of lucerne and rice straw stacked at one side, next to large hessian sacks of oaten chaff and pony pellets. There were four loose boxes for horses down the side, with external doors opening out onto the home paddock. The donkey Simone had rescued a baby from the food market in Guangzhou when she was four years old was dozing in his stall. He gently shook his long ears when he saw her but didn’t wake otherwise. The other two boxes contained contented-looking ponies munching on hay nets.
Freddo was curled up on the floor of his box, nestled in the rice straw, his nose leaning on the floor.
Simone went into the box and wrinkled her nose at the smell. She went back out, unwrapped her robe to hang it on a hook, and returned with the rake and wheelbarrow. She raked up Freddo’s poop and put it into the wheelbarrow, then collected the urine-soaked straw and added it to the pile.
‘Princesses don’t muck out demon horses,’ Freddo said without looking up. ‘The mafoo comes to do that at eight am.’
‘That was the first thing Hongie taught us in Demon Horse Management 101 at Celestial High, remember?’ Simone asked. She wheeled the barrow of muck out of his box and left it near the barn door for the mafoo to drop into the muck heap—the snow on the ground was too thick for her to plow through in her pyjamas. She returned with an armful of rice straw from the bales and spread it over the rubber matting that softened the floor of Freddo’s box. ‘There. Much better.’
She sat next to Freddo and put her hand on his shoulder. ‘They’re just little kids. They see other kids being bullies in the playground sometimes and forget that it’s not okay. And Frankie ...’
Freddo didn’t look at her as he spoke. ‘Frankie spent a lot of his life with demons. Demons are cruel monsters who delight in torturing people.’
She put her arms around his neck. ‘He’s learning. We have to help him. And he’ll definitely be along shortly to apologise profusely and self-flagellate for being so mean to someone he loves so much.’
He sighed deeply, making a puff of dust rise from the straw. ‘I’m just so damn tired of moving through a world that’s not designed to fit me.’ He turned his head to see her. ‘Your grandparents didn’t stop me from joining Christmas in the living room, but they were freaking out that I would break something ’cause I’m so big. I appreciate the phone thing, but I’m not disabled. I’m just me, and most of the time the world rejects what I am.’
‘You are unique, you know that?’ she asked. ‘The Demon King’s breeding program produced some monsters, but I don’t think he ever intended to make something as magnificent as you. Your father is sentient as well, but he isn’t nearly as intelligent as you are, and wouldn’t know what to do with his own computer. You, on the other hand, could probably go to Celestial High and get straight A’s.’
‘The study halls wouldn’t fit me. The equipment wouldn’t fit me,’ he said softly into the floor. ‘I’m such a freak.’
‘I love you so much, Freddo. We’re a pair of freaks together.’
‘I would give anything to be human-sized and have arms to hug you back,’ he moaned. ‘Is there any way that I can be changed to human? Lok was a dragon who was changed to a dog. Your dad’s the most powerful person anywhere—can he do something for me?’
‘I’m an idiot,’ she said. ‘I assumed you knew—when of course you don’t. You don’t have access to the teachings or anyone to teach you.’
‘I knew what?’ he asked. ‘What teachings?’
‘When demons Ascend, they become human. I know that’s what you want, and in enough time, it will happen.’
‘No!’ he said and looked away again. ‘Demons who Ascend are born as humans and forget their demon lives. I never want to forget you. Ugh. Move back, please. I’m getting stiff on the floor like this, and I need to move around.’
She gave him room, and he pulled himself to his feet, then shook himself out.
‘That’s better,’ he said. ‘Is there a way for me to be made human without Ascending? I never want to leave you.’
‘I’ve never heard of it, but I’m not an expert on demons.’ She grabbed a body brush from the side of the box and ran it over his gleaming sides. ‘You can use the phone I gave you to contact people in the Celestial and ask them? Contact the Archivist and see if another demon has done this? Research the teachings?’ She stopped brushing. ‘I seem to vaguely recall the horse in Journey to the West occasionally changing into a human, maybe you should check that out?’
He lowered his head and snorted. ‘It was a brilliant gift, and I went all petulant and rejected it.’
‘The boys caused that, your reaction was perfectly understandable,’ she said. ‘I didn’t realise it would make you feel lesser. You are exactly who you are, and I want you to be happy.’
‘There’s only one way that I could truly be happy.’ He turned his neck to see her as she brushed him. ‘You know how I feel, Simmony. Is there ...’ He choked on the words. ‘Is there any hope for us?’
She stopped brushing him. She knew this question had been coming for ages, and she’d already prepared a speech about power imbalances, inappropriate age differences—he was only ten years old—and the fact that she didn’t see him that way. She couldn’t have a relationship of equals with a tame demon who had no choice but to obey her every command. Introducing him to gorgeous demon mares had been ineffective, as he’d despised every one. She decided not to break his heart while he was hurting so badly, and fortunately the rest of the family were approaching with the television, headset and warm barley to rescue her.
‘They’re coming to say they’re sorry for being mean,’ she said. ‘We’ll have that talk later.’
He lowered his head. ‘Then I know the answer. They weren’t being mean, it was the truth. I would be less disabled if I was a human in a wheelchair—at least I’d be welcome in the house.’
‘Have you ever thought about designing a house that would suit you?’ she asked. ‘If you stopped trying to fit into the human world, and made a world for yourself? What would that look like?’
He glanced around at the barn. ‘It would look like this. Your grandparents asked me what I wanted when they built it next to the foaling stables.’ He lowered his head and his ears sagged. ‘It’s a place for an animal, which is what I am.’
She hugged his head. ‘I love you so much, Freddo.’
‘Not the way I want,’ he said miserably to the floor.
She sniffled and wiped her nose on her pyjama sleeve.
He saw her face. ‘You’re crying?’
She choked through the tears, devastated at his misery. ‘I can never be what you want.’
‘Oh.’ He stepped back from her and turned to face her. ‘Wow. Look at me. This isn’t me.’ He tossed his head. ‘Now I know what Emma was talking about! She said I was being selfish and hurting you by wanting you to love me like that when it wasn’t what you wanted, and she was right.’ He stepped forward and touched her head with his nose. ‘I was too wrapped up in what I wanted. How can I demand this of you when it’s not what you want? I’m so selfish, so obsessed by my love for you, that I never considered what you want. If it was true love, I would be happy if you were happy, even if it is with someone else.’ He moaned softly. ‘I am so sorry.’
‘You can talk to Audrey?’ Simone asked.
‘I already am. I’ll talk to her again after the break. Hey.’ He stepped back and lowered his head to look her in the eye, full of remorse. ‘I’m so sorry. Emma was right. Audrey was right. I’m a selfish dick—’
Simone snorted with laughter through the tears.
‘Yeah. And that chestnut mare? The one with the flaxen mane and tail?’
‘I’ll arrange for you to meet her again.’
The doors opened and Frankie and Matthew crept in, still sniffling, followed by the rest of the family.
‘They need to apologise to you as well,’ Freddo said. ‘Everybody’s always expected you to do things for them, Simmony, and it’s about time you started doing things for you .’